During the late afternoon, I made visit to Sydney Park at St Peters for some bird photography. I was after, in particular, more photos of Lewin’s Rails. During my visit I could hear several, and even see the vegetation moving as their sound moved around. But they chose to stay hidden. However, as on all visits to a site like this, there was plenty of things to see and photograph.
There were lots of baby birds. Here is an Australasian Swamphen with its chick – Continue reading
Another early start for the Greenway Bird Survey with the Inner West Environment Group, between Taverners Hill light rail station and Hawthorne light rail station along the Greenway. It was a bit dark and gloomy and a lot of the birds were a bit quiet.
At Taverners Hill, we did not see too many of the usual birds – Honeyeaters and Silvereyes. But there were a lot of Noisy Miners in one tree – Continue reading
After spending the early morning at the Cooks River, I headed home, and then in the afternoon, went on a visit to Sydney Olympic Park. There, I visited the Waterbird Refuge at Bicentennial Park, then went to Wentworth Common and The Brickpit.
I probably spent most of my time at Wentworth Common – and was on the lookout for Rails and Crakes. But did not spot any this visit (I may have left too early?). I did spot a nice pair of Brown Quail – Continue reading
I was up early in the morning to get down to the Lang St Bridge over the Cooks River by 7 am in order to join the Mudlarks for the monthly bird survey. This month, the group was surveying downstream.
Here are some of the birds we saw – Continue reading
It was time to visit some local birds again. I walked down to the Cooks River, crossed at the Lang St Bridge and then slowly walked upstream.
No Kingfishers this time. But I did spot a single Tawny Frogmouth roosting in a tree where I had seen two roosting last visit. Continue reading
I had grown up at Springwood and thought I knew the local area pretty well, but there was one creek that I had not visited – Frasers Creek, near Yellow Rock. I was surprised to find when looking on maps that that Yellow Rock is now a town. In my younger days, it was the name of a road that went to Yellow Rock Lookout.
Yellow Rock Falls
I had heard that Frasers Creek contained a waterfall worth seeing, and a visit to the creek had been on my list of future walks for a long time – but with only a low priority. Bob was keen for a trip, but for various reasons, did not want to venture too far away, so suggested it was now time to do the Frasers Creek walk. Already, when talking about options, we thought the best way would be to take a bike and use that for a quick way to avoid a road bash. Continue reading
I was keen to see the Kingfishers again, so headed out to Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside for some more bird photography.
I was on the lookout for Azure Kingfishers and wanted photos of them diving for and retrieving fish. As it turned out – although I did see at least one of the them – it was too fast for me to get any photos of it diving. I did see some Sacred Kingfishers – but they remained static. Continue reading
I said a few weeks back that the current display of pink Flannel Flowers (Actinotus forsythii) will probably be the best we will ever see them in our lifetimes. One of the reasons is that these flowers only appear after fire – and the bushfires of last summer were so catastrophically huge in extent. I have seen the flowers before, but only at individual sites. Now all these locations have very good displays. These include Narrow Neck, Mt Hay area, Kanangra Walls Plateau and the Newnes Plateau.
A friend, Roger, who undertakes vegetation studies near Goochs Crater in the Wollangambe Wilderness, had sent a message saying that he had heard that the pink Flannel Flowers at Goochs Crater were at or near their zenith. So a trip was organised with Digi Dave. We decided to visit Goochs Crater and on the way up inspect Narrow Neck. Later, if we had time, we would look on other sites on the Newnes Plateau. Continue reading
I was shocked to hear of the serious illness and then passing of a good friend – Vanessa Haverd on 19 January 2021. She died far too young – at the age of 43 after a battle with cancer. She leaves a daughter, Erica, and her husband Matthew Hole.
I did a lot of bushwalking with Vanessa in the period – 1996 to 2000, when we were both very active in Sydney University Bushwalkers. Vanessa was a great walking companion – capable of doing long hard walks with ease and never complaining of conditions. She was fit and strong. Continue reading
Thursday was the usual day for a walk with Bob. With an adverse weather forecast – he suggested a walk along part of the Manly to Bondi Coastal Path. We had long planned to walk north from Bondi, and this seemed like a good opportunity.
We met up at the north end of Bondi Beach. We then headed out towards Ben Buckler and to an Aboriginal engraving – Continue reading
